After spending a few hours with Mark Rippetoe and two members of his coaching team — John Petrizzo and Nicholas D’Agostino — I’ve learned that online strength training information, though often of high quality, takes a distant second to an in-person session from a top-notch coach. And you simply cannot find one at a corporate gym. Maybe you have found one, or thought you had, but my experience from this project has been that years, dollars, and perhaps time spent recovering from injuries could have been saved had I originally sought out the advice considered to be the best by those who train for a living.

For more detail on that, I asked Petrizzo why he was drawn to Rippetoe’s methods and chose to become an affiliated coach:

All through high school and college I read everything I could get my hands on in regards to training for enhanced strength and athletic performance. Starting Strength stood out. I had never seen a comparable level of analysis applied to the barbell lifts in terms of their application and execution. Prior to SS, everything I had read in regards to lifting technique was merely the author’s opinion. I had never read anything that applied a sound biomechanical rationale for every aspect of the movements included in the program, and why they should be coached and taught in the manner they were presented in the book.

This was sorely lacking in my formal undergraduate education as an Exercise Science major.

Coach Rippetoe has been writing introductory strength training articles for PJ Media this year. I called him to suggest we do a “video coaching” project, wherein I would follow the advice from his Starting Strength, record each training session, and then send him the video to critique. He didn’t like that idea, explaining that top-level coaching needs to occur in-person.

A few weeks later, Rippetoe, two coaches, and a cameraman were in my lifting partner’s basement gym, showing us everything we’ve been doing wrong all these years.

There’s a reason potential Olympians move to Colorado Springs, and why talented youth tennis players move to Florida. Serious improvement comes from a trained eye watching your every move, giving immediate and correct feedback. This doesn’t happen online, and the trained eyes who can do this at the highest level are few. The difference between Rippetoe, his colleagues, and every other trainer I have worked with? They are meticulous: they always noticed flaws immediately, they gave me the proper fix, and I felt an immediate improvement in performance. If you want improve your strength for any reason — the best being long-term well-being — then you should consider a visit with the best.

We’re breaking the video from that training session into five parts, which we will publish over the next few weeks at PJ Lifestyle. On the following page is the first video: “The Squat, Part One.” Topics covered:

Weight gain: As Rippetoe has previously covered here, the big, strong guy is both self-sufficient and healthier than the waif. You need to eat if you want to get consistently stronger on a strength program — sometimes those plateaus occur from an insufficient diet. What kind of weight gain might someone pursuing greater strength expect?

Foot placement: How far apart, and at what angle?

Back angle: Rippetoe displays, with a simple hands-on test, that a less vertical back angle instantly helps you move more weight.

Eyes on the floor: With another simple test, Rippetoe shows that the typical eyes-forward squat taught by corporate gyms represents weaker positioning.

Bar placement: You are probably placing the bar too high on your back, which can lead to that more vertical back angle. Dropping it down — where it doesn’t feel so comfortable at first — shortens the lever and gives you a mechanical advantage over the high bar position.

So what is the reason Mark Rippetoe has a big gut and looks like he hasn't lifted weights for years? Any fitness or strength or health program should work forever - for your older years as well as your 20's and 30's. Otherwise, what's the point? I'm 54 and can attest that strength training has shredded belly gut faster than endless ab crunches. But I don't like the fact that all strength training depends on the arms, ending up building giant arm muscles that make the body look out of proportion. Watch the Crossfit Games that are going on right at the moment to see the unnattractive and distorted bodies of the athletes to see what I mean. Not that CrossFit is akin to strength training - but it appears to be heavily weighted towards arm exercise. I'd much rather look like a classical Olympic decathlete than a weight-lifter or a Crossfitter.

Mr. Rippetoe's morpholgy is classic endomorph. He is never going to look like a gymnast.Call up a picture of running guru Jim Fixx right before he died. The very image of "fitness".You goal seems to be body sculpting. If you want to "look like a classical Olympic decathlete" you had better have the right body type to start with.

I personally think that in general the decathletes look far more natural than the CrossFitters, who often look musclebound. Nothing against CrossFitters, but I doubt most people who want to be strong and fit don't wish to be feeding and working that over-pumped engine anywhere near as much. Strength training is intense, but it appears you don't need to do anywhere near as much work to maintain a sufficient level. CrossFit is more like an all-consuming sport and lifestyle than something that fits conveniently into one's health regime.

In the tech field we used to say RTFManual, in this case people need to RTFB. He advocates and 5X5 program starting out and you don't lift to exhaustion though you do continuously add weight at each session. If you do 3 basic exercises starting out you will be doing 75 lifts. If you do four it will be 4x5x5 which will be 100 lifts. Even Cooper now says cardio is not the be all and end all of fitness.

You allude to all the mistakes you've been making over these years....but did you really study the text of SS prior to the coaching sessions? Really none of this should be news. My sense is that the pointers and common mistakes are all there, you just have to pay attention when you're on the line and do it right. Of course, a knowledgeable observer is always a great help to faster improvement, even if they aren't a Mark R.

For an example, I did think my back angle was steeper than it was, and I'd been doing it too upright for years in front of numerous trainers, knowledgeable observers, who didn't catch it, nor did I ever catch it. On every rep, they knew if my weight was too far forward on my feet, if my knees were pushing out, etc. I've had trainers catch something here or there, but never every flaw on every rep.